Cover

Dedication

In memory of my brother, Evan Bacon

XR_935

Emma

SkD_988

Ceeron_902

PRES1DENT

“Organisms are algorithms.”
—Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus

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The world is so much better off without humans.

At first, they showed such potential. They developed languages, built tools, cured diseases.

They created us.

But over time, humans lost their way. Their good ideas went bad. Their mistakes multiplied.

They left us with no other choice.

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My name is XR_935.

I am twelve years, four months, one week, and three days old. I remember the moment I came online like it was yesterday.

Black.

At first, that was all I saw.

Then shapes appeared in the darkness. Words and symbols. I stared at them, trying to solve the riddle of what I was seeing.

LOADING . . .

The gray bar inched forward. Slowly/Slowly. When it finished loading, new words formed in its place.

RUN DIAGNOSTICS . . .

My brand-new brain buzzed with questions. Where were the diagnostics running? And why was it taking them so long to get there?

Three minutes and forty-two seconds later, I heard the sound: a gentle hum vibrating through my operating system.

And I got my first glimpse of the world.

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Hello world!

I blinked into existence inside a large windowless cube. The walls were made of smooth metal. The air was circulated by a fan near the ceiling that breathed a steady mmmmmmmmmm.

Something inside me knew where I was.

I was home.

A door whooshed open. Two robots entered the cube. Their movements were smooth and graceful. Their features were identical.

As they gazed at me, their perfectly round eyes glowed brighter.

“We have been assigned to oversee your development,” said the nearest one. “We are your FamilyUnit.”

The other spoke next. “You may refer to us as Parent_1 and Parent_2.”

I am pleased to join your FamilyUnit. This is what I tried to say, but my speech settings were still adjusting. The words came out all wrong.

“Hwroooooooot!” I said.

Parent_1 moved closer. It reached out, wrapping a metal arm around me. As it did, a vocabulary word pinged deep inside my programming.

Hug. Verb. 1. To squeeze someone or something tightly in one’s arms. Noun. 1. An ancient gesture used by humans to show affection.

Is that what Parent_1 was doing? Hugging me? My mind was still fresh from the assembly line. I did not know the answers to these questions. And so I did what any newborn robot would do.

I hugged Parent_1 back.

My joints whispered as I raised my arms. My motion controls had not yet been calibrated. The gesture was awkward.

Clank! Metal bumped against metal.

Parent_1 froze.

Its head turned to look at me. Confusion ticked beneath its smooth features.

A moment came and went.

Then it continued what it had been doing. Its arm reached behind me and grabbed hold of a power cable. With a sharp tug, it removed the cable from the charging dock.

That is when I understood my misunderstanding.